Monday, August 17, 2009

Description:Hey Major Matt Mason and Billy Blastoff collectors, check this out. Offered here is a rarely seen vintage Marx #1723 Jane Apollo astronaut figure. The figure has absolutely zero scuffs, scrapes, dings, melts, or ANYTHING that I would list as wear. She comes complete with all her parts, including her un-used decals and her instruction sheet, which are just as bright and new as the figure itself. The box is also clean and bright with no tape and only one corner that is about 1/2 way split. The lid has a slight indentation near the top and bottom (see in the picture near her name along the top) which really only makes this box a 9 instead of a 10. The only other problem (you knew there had to be something) is that at some time while this figure was on display in my collection, one of her two air hoses neatly snapped in two. If I had left her parts sealed like they were when I bought her years ago, it would have never happened. Both halves are included so maybe a repair could be made. For my part, I mostly have tried to down play the condition of the toys I have sold on Ebay to help insure that my customers are not disappointed. But in this case, I feel I can rave alittle because this toy is so nice and so rare. It is just part of a large group of space toys I'll be selling from my own collection over the next few weeks and I will be offering all of them at no reserve. Due to current Ebay rules, I accept Paypal only and due to my own choice, I only ship to the USA, so no foreign bids will be accepted. Shipping is just $5.00 ( or $8.00 if you win both the Johnny and Jane figures) and is done via USPS Priority Mail. Insurance is extra and is recommended. I will send an invoice out shortly after the auction ends with your discounted shipping cost and insurance info. If your not interested in the insurance, or only win one auction, you can go ahead and Paypal as soon as you determine you are the winner. My auctions always end on Sunday nights and if you send your Paypal payment before noon the next day (Monday), at least for now, I can mail your package the same day. In all cases, I would like to receive your payment within three days from closing and for my part, I always try to have everything mailed by the end of the week. Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions and don't forget to check out my other listings for other cool stuff, as I will always combine your winnings from my other listings to save you on shipping. Thanks in advance and happy bidding!!!

My Take:This is just a rare figure, period. I'm not sure why it's such a difficult figure to find - sales must have be abysmal as I'm guessing that Jane didn't appeal to most girls and few boys had them. I've only seen a handful of boxed examples (I'm lucky to own one) and as you can see from this auction, premium examples go for good money - this is also the only boxed example I've seen on eBay since I last reported on them (see my post on January 14, 2008. Sales are very strong on Jane.

Description:Hey Major Matt Mason and Billy Blastoff collectors, check this out. Offered here is a vintage Marx #1724 Johnny Apollo astronaut figure. The figure has absolutely zero scuffs, scrapes, dings, melts, or ANYTHING that I would list as wear. He comes complete with all his parts, including his un-used decals which are just as bright and new as the figure itself. His instructions are however starting to show a little bit of tanning. The box is also clean and bright with no split corners or tape. The only problem (you knew there had to be something) is that at some time while this figure was on display in my collection, one of his two air hoses neatly snapped in two. If I had left his parts sealed like they were when I bought him years ago, it would have never happened. Both halves are included so maybe a repair could be made. For my part, I mostly have tried to down play the condition of the toys I have sold on Ebay to help insure that my customers are not disappointed. But in this case, I feel I can rave alittle because this toy is so nice. It is just part of a large group of space toys I'll be selling from my own collection over the next few weeks and I will be offering all of them all at no reserve. Due to current Ebay rules, I accept Paypal only and due to my own choice, I only ship to the USA, so no foreign bids will be accepted. Shipping is just $5.00 ( or $8.00 if you win both the Johnny and Jane figures) and is done via USPS Priority Mail. Insurance is extra and is recommended. I will send an invoice out shortly after the auction ends with your discounted shipping cost and insurance info. If your not interested in the insurance, or only win one auction, you can go ahead and Paypal as soon as you determine you are the winner. My auctions always end on Sunday nights and if you send your Paypal payment before noon the next day (Monday), at least for now, I can mail your package the same day. In all cases, I would like to receive your payment within three days from closing and for my part, I always try to have everything mailed by the end of the week. Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions and don't forget to check out my other listings for other cool stuff, as I will always combine your winnings from my other listings to save you on shipping. Thanks in advance and happy bidding!!!

My Take:As you can tell by the description, this was from the same seller as the Jane above. I'm not too surprised at the winning bid, however it is a bit above the average sale price for these. I'm guessing that the winner of the Jane wanted the pair and one of the under-bidders choose to go for this as a consolation to loosing out on Jane, which drove the price up a bit. The "Johnny Apollo" boxed figures seem to demand more than the "Kennedy Space Center Astronaut" boxed figure - from experience the Kennedy box is the most common of the variations with the Johnson Space center being the rarest (only seen 2 of these) and the Mark Apollo being scarce (UK/Europe distribution).

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About Me

I've been writing online about the things that interest me since about 1995 (back then I had 10 MB of free webspace on my internet provider) - I purchased my first domain, wildtoys.com in 1998, however the site actually started as part of my personal webspace via free provider around 1996. I'm very interested in Modern Design (Mid-Century is a particular favorite), the Space Race, movies and science fiction. I'm also an avid woodworker and vintage toy collection - especially Space Toys and Japanese Toys from the 70's and 80's (what we call Shogun Warriors in the US but what most of Asia refer to as Jumbo Machinders).

I have a number of websites and blogs - search by my name or handle, johnnyapollo